Gastown Gamble: the rebirth of Vancouver's Save-on-Meats

This reality show makes up for the monumental stupidity of ones like Keeping Up with The Kardashians.

Gastown Gamble premieres on Oprah Winfrey’s Own network next Wednesday. Cameras went behind the scenes last year as owners Mark and Nico Brand struggled to re-open Gastown’s iconic Save-On-Meats. This was no ordinary butcher shop and diner serving the hybrid neighbourhood of the very poor and the very middle condo-class. For the couple, Save-On-Meats became an increasingly social and economic project, addressing needs of some of the nation’s neediest souls.

Having previewed two of eight episodes, I’m a fan. Characters include the sixtysomething Football Mike, who had spent 80 per cent of his life in jail and or on the streets. His ever-present football earned him the nickname. For five years, he’s been the maintenance guy for Brand’s Gastown restaurants (Boneta, The Diamond, Sushi Monstr, as well as Save-On-Meats).

“It’s a story that’s heartbreaking,” Mark Brand says of Football Mike, in a phone interview. “He didn’t do anything to hurt anyone – ever. He’s a wonderful, wonderful human being and one of my best friends ever since we found him living on the streets one super-cold winter. He has Asperger Syndrome and couldn’t cope with the dirt and bedbugs where he had been living.”

Football Mike works seven days a week, is paid a daily wage and “works his a– off,” Brand says. “I literally wouldn’t have been able to do a lot of builds without him.”

“I have faith in you, boss!” Football Mike says to Brand in the show, a summary of their relationship.

The neighbourhood hires add to the drama. Some employees show up, some don’t; some lip off, some struggle from day to day and some cling to the opportunity.

The days leading up to opening day of Save-On-Meats is more like Survivor Vancouver. Permits come through at the 12th hour, payroll is crippling the business, the meat cooler shuts down, threatening the loss of $22,000 worth of meat three hours before opening. Nico, a Gwenyth Paltrow combo of delicacy and steel, puts on a Hazmat suit to clean a rotisserie to showcase in the window, only to see the heat cracking the window in two. Her role is butcher shop manager.

“I know this pig is dead but I don’t want to hurt him,” she says, facing reality butchery. Nico, who previously worked for Aritzia as a production manager, earned a lot of cred from Mark. “She’s a genius!” he says. “She was working with senior executives and quit a really good job to earn nothing. She still doesn’t make anything but she loves it.”

Brand says he’s been approached to do shows before. “They always wanted us to be scripted and create bull—- drama,” he says. “I’m uninterested in portraying anything than what we actually are.”

The producers (Lark Productions) became part of the ‘family’, Brand says. “They were cool. They didn’t exploit, which is against everything we do here. I was blown away. It was not sensationalized or scripted. It’s not fake reality TV. People who worked for the company turned down jobs with large shows because they fell in love with what this was,” he says.

Gastown Gamble producer Andrew Williamson says his crew connected with the neighbourhood. “It was fantastic because initially, we didn’t think we’d get that connection. That was a really cool additional outcome.”

And Williamson grew to admire the Brands. “It hasn’t been easy and they’re two of the hardest working people I know. They have a lot of balls in the air but they work long hours, are committed and don’t give up. Their objective is to run businesses that encompass social values.”

“It’s a really cool story that shows you can do business honestly and legitimately with people at risk. I wanted the story to be told, period,” Brand says. “Emotions run through the show. It also feeds me. There’s something about doing what you absolutely love and I love this. It’s not a struggle to get up and work seven days a week. We’ve started a meal program providing 600 meals a day for at-risk people. We get together and make 600 meals a day and we know where it’s going. It’s a wonderful thing, working here and serving the community.

“Nico and I don’t own a home or a car,” Brand says. “We own our business and we’re totally comfortable with that. We’re peeling it back and being a positive force in the community.”

Gastown Gamble airs at and is optioned for two further years. The eight episodes air on OWN on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. on OWN and repeats on Fridays at 8 p.m.

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